


Summer Snails

by hispano



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-19 08:20:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29996535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hispano/pseuds/hispano
Summary: Birds, Bees, Whiskey
Relationships: Phryne Fisher/Jack Robinson
Comments: 6
Kudos: 44





	1. Chapter 1

There was most definitely something wrong with what she was seeing.

The eyes bulging.

The skin hard

The touch, wet.

She pushed her finger into the surface, and it moved.

"Jesus Christ."

Jack Robinson lowered the report he was reading to the table on hearing the woman beside him speak, her voice marked in frustration.

"What is wrong now?"

Phryne glared at him, before pointing ahead. "She's poking that snail. I'm not moving Jack, I've had it. You deal with it."

He eyed her in amusement, before realising now was not the time to poke fun and instead stood up, walking over to his child who appeared as if she was about ten seconds from licking a snail.

"Ah! Let it go, that's dirty."

The little girl beamed up at him, her hands covered in dirt and slime, her tongue poking between her teeth with her cheeks forming apple shapes, her eyes beaming. The snail was now held between her fingers, its eyes darting from side to side.

"Bzzzzzzz. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

He looked back at Phryne, eyeing her in amusement. "I see that book you've been reading to her about bees has done wonders for her observation skills."

Phryne lowered her glasses to the bridge of her nose, peering at him over the edges of the lens. 

"Please make her put it back in the garden."

Jack bent over, and brushing his hand over his child's cheek, reached for her hand, gently unprying her fingers and setting the snail free in the garden.

"You must be gentle darling. Gentle."

He felt her tiny hand curl around his, her warm soft skin pressing into his hardened palm. He walked back to the table, slowly stepping up each step to their verandah, the burgundy tiles of Wardlow cold beneath his bare feet.

He felt her hand slip from his as she toddled over to Phryne, her little hands pressing into her mother's knees.

"Just what are we going to do with you."

Phryne brushed her hand over her child's head, the soft black curls bouncing as she let the hair fall between her fingertips.

They had come a long way together. From far and distant lands of sadness and grief and panic and anger, to arrive quite firmly after the first year of trouble, to one of love. The   
child still called for Jack after a nightmare in the night, her seemingly ingrained instincts of her mother's initial rejection and dismay at her being around for the first six months still holding strong weight in the child's young heart.

Phryne lifted her two year old daughter, placing her on her lap and began a slow, steady pat of her back as she nuzzled into her chest, one tiny hand clutching onto her velvet and silk embordered kimono.

Phryne readjusted her sunglasses, and reached for the police report on the table, patting her child with one hand, and holding the well read paper in the other.

She broke into a soft smile as she felt her husband press his lips to her cheek as he sat down.

"They still haven't found her left leg?"

Jack shook his head, reaching for his glass of whiskey and taking a sip as the afternoon summer sun warmed the bridge of his nose, likely burning it a soft shade of red.

"It's a gang war, Phryne, I doubt we ever will"

Phryne peered down as she heard her child whimper against her and she recommenced the patting of her back she had stopped briefly to ponder their latest murder case.

"She's about to fall asleep."

Phryne nodded and leaning forward placed her lips in her child's hair. "She's always exhausted after a day with Bert and Cec. I fear they run her ragged to avoid any moments of two year old boredom."

Jack nodded slowly, watching Phryne comfort their daughter. It had been nothing but dismay for her on finding out her pregnancy was indeed happening, and even more so when the child was born. She hadn't planned for it, neither had he, and for a while he wasn't quite sure whether they had made the right choice in continuing with the pregnancy. Yet they had made it work. They hadn't lost their work, the thing they did best together, and they hadn't lost each other either. 

"Evie?"

He waited as his daughter looked at him, her face breaking out into a smile. 

"Does your new friend you found in the garden have a name?"

"Don't encourage her Jack. She'll bring it inside next."

"You might even find it on your pillow in the morning, Miss Fisher."

She narrowed her eyes at him, and he reached for sipping his drink, not failing to notice that after all these years, nothing much had changed between them at all.


	2. Chapter 2

There was a strange wind.

The air was fraught, cold, tight, sharp.

Her breath was deep, low. long and warm.

Everything was opposite and nothing was the same.

Her legs once smooth and fresh were old and stained. Stained red from the marks of his hands, the touch of his lips, the strike of his knuckles.

Time sped up and slowed down, birds called. The sun rose.

* * *

She slowly pried open one eye as she heard the creak of the bedroom door and the rather clumsy run of her two year old.

She came toddling over, her face swollen from sleep and her white nightgown ending at her rounded, dimpled knees. 

"There was a time once when I could sleep till noon if I chose, or even better far beyond it."

"There was a time when I could do my job in peace."

Phryne extended her leg back and gave the sleeping form beside her a gentle nudge.

"Jack Robinson."

She smiled as he rolled over and his arms encircled her, bringing her into his body. His voice was gravelly and rumpled, slow and deep from sleeping and it stirred a warmth in her.

"What's the time?"

She shrugged against him. "I'd rather not know."

Their attention was drawn to a series of whimpers with bed clothes being pulled. It was all rather unpleasant this early.

Phryne rolled her eyes and extending an arm from her very warm bed, helped her child up beside her.

She had decided once the first few months of Evie's life had passed and her dismay had settled, that her child was most definitely not welcome in their bed in the morning. It had been a firm resolve within her to maintain their privacy or just the ability to sleep nude should she choose. Her strength to withstand the rather adorable chubby legs of her child however was quite weak let alone her warm little body of the mornings, snuggled into her.

"Ma Ma."

Phryne breathed out slowly, locking eyes with her child. When she was first born her eyes were a dark, unwelcoming empty hue. Black holes of nothing except aimless wonder and relentless desperation for food and comfort. As she grew over those first months, her eyes turned to warm blue, the colour of her own, and with the black hair that was growing at her cheeks and her husband's unmistakeable nose and curls, she found herself falling for the child in question. She was the last in Wardlow to do so, Mr Butler falling hard after Jack, Dot and Hugh soon following, Bert and Cec not long after and rather firmly and with an unmistakeable delight in the wriggling baby was Jane. Her girl had come to form a bond with Evie that no one was quite expecting.

A longer and much stronger arm extended over her body and cupped the cheek of two year old Evie Robinson.

"Good morning."

Evie broke into a toothless grin, and with no care for her mother's major organs tumbled over to Jack.

Phryne turned over and watched as Jack lifted Evie over his head, grinning at her with adoration, Evie's hair falling over her face, her little feet swinging forward.

"How is Miss Muppet?"

Evie giggled, before settling herself on top of Jack's chest as he lowered her back to the bed.

Phryne shuffled closer to Jack and rested her chin on his shoulder, one hand on Evie's back.

"She's so warm in the mornings."

Jack eyed her in amusement. "Isn't she always warm? You certainly rug her up until she's burning hot."

Phryne rolled her eyes, deciding that telling him for the hundredth time that she didn't want her child to feel the cold like she had once would become rather boring. And she was not boring.

"I just mean she's still sleepy and without any need to harass me yet."

"I see. "

"Don't look at me like that Jack. I didn't mean it as it sounded."

He breathed in sharply, knowing he had likely said the wrong thing. Their relationship almost didn't survive Phryne's pregnancy or those first few months such was the conflict, anger and sadness that marked their time together. Phryne never much bothered with the baby, leaving most of the initial care to himself and Dot. It wasn't until Evie's brush with illness and Mac's words of anger straight back at Phryne that seemed to draw her to the reality of the situation. She had decided to keep the baby, and that was it.

He watched as Phryne got up from the bed, barely looking at him and walked to the bathroom, speaking over her shoulder.

"I'll be ready for the station in an hour."

Evie's babbling the only thing to break up the tension.

* * *

"Dear god."

Jack locked eyes with Hugh as he spoke, seeing that his Constable's face was now an ashen shade of grey.

"Hugh I need you to take notes."

He watched as Hugh seemed to shake himself awake, pulling out his notebook and pencil.

"Lacerations to the face mainly the cheeks and chin. Victim has had leg removed."

"Rather violently."

He eyed Phryne in warning as she spoke, knowing that this case was hitting the station hard. Women were turning up broken and battered, some found alive, most not. 

"Let's just get through this."

Phryne was half bent over the body, gently lifting a hand, the nails painted bright red.

"Her hands are clean."

Jack walked over to her, peering over her shoulder to the view the hand in question.

"There's no defence wounds."

Phryne nodded in agreement, lowering the hand back to the table before walking towards the feet, her eyes paying close attention to the shoes.

"They're expensive shoes Jack. Brand new too."

"Well, we don't know who she is yet-"

"She was found in Collingwood. Either she lost her way or she's getting paid for her time."

Hugh cleared his throat nervously, his pencil scratching against the paper.

"I'll see if anything on her matches our other victims. Hugh once you've written up your report, I want you to work with Dot and try and find where the shoes are from."

Hugh nodded in understanding, placing his notebook in his pocket. He had grown to accept his wife was not going to stop her work. He still worried, often till he could not sleep at night, but there was no doubt she was good at her job and he couldn't do much without her.

Phryne cleared her throat, seeing that Hugh was looking rather horrified by the events of this morning and needed some distraction.

"I hope we'll see you two this weekend?"

Hugh broke into a smile, that familiar childlike grin. "Dot's already baking."

Phryne winked at him, and watched him leave the morgue, waiting for the sounds of his shoes on the tiles of the hallway to become distant.

"And what are my orders Inspector?"

She moved closer to him, her hands reaching out to brush against his tie and stared up at him from beneath her lashes.

"I know better than to give you orders."

She tilted her head, jutting out her lips knowing the red colour she had painted them this morning lured him like no other.

"Don't make me beg, Jack."

She gasped as he suddenly pressed against her, one hand reaching down to squeeze her behind.

"Behave yourself Miss Fisher."

He stepped back from her, reaching for his fedora and placed it on his head before leaving the morgue. She breathed in, feeling her skin rise with heat, her body pooling in desire. 

She reached for her bag, shouting at him as his shoes made contact with the tiled floor of the hallway.

"You're cruel Jack!"

"I learnt from the best, Miss Fisher"


	3. Chapter 3

She reached for her fork, and absently fiddling with the chocolate cream cake in front of her, nodded her head, doing her best to seem interested.

For all intents and purposes she found this company incredibly tiresome. They were society types, friends of long ago who somehow had remained in her address book but who she had outgrown.

It had been a favour for Aunt P really, a chance to increase the funding for the War Veteran's fund and she was quite happy to raise funds for anyone who needed it. She just wished the conversation matched the goodwill willingly given.

"Are you sure? I was quite sure they were a most suitable match?"

Lady Garrison shook her head, reaching for her tea cup and taking a sip. "Oh no. His family was in a different economic bracket entirely."

Phryne swallowed deeply, trying to focus on the cake in front of her. The couple in question were separating due to rather serious circumstances. 

"How unfortunate. She'll never find another now."

Phryne rolled her eyes, doing her best to keep her mouth shut but she couldn't.

"For goodness sakes, Loretta, he's beating her."

Loretta gasped in surprise at the sudden dismissal of her opinion, brushing her hands over her serviette in her lap as a means of distraction.

"I-I-"

"Ma Ma?"

Phryne breathed in sharply and turned, her eyes falling on her child who was cloudy from her nap, one hand clumsily rubbing her eye as she stood before in her nightgown.

She smiled apologetically to the table and standing up, walked over to her child, bending over to pick her up.

"I saw fings'. Theys graaahhh grahhhhhhhhhh!"

Phryne bit her lip in slight amusement and nodded slowly. "I see."

"Champagne?" 

Phryne closed her eyes as the table behind her shouted that loudly.

"Help yourself. I'll be back."

Without waiting for a response, she turned, walking up the stairs. Her stomach pooled in frustration. She wasn't sure whether it was for the child in her arms or the rather irritating group at her dining room table. Either way she did not like being interrupted.

She went to discipline her child, to be stern and frim but suddenly her little two year old head was resting against her shoulder, her thumb stuck firmly in her mouth and she had no words.

"I think you've had a long enough nap for now Miss Muppet-" knowing that Evie rather loved that nickname Jack had assigned her and it would calm her down. "-and how about we get you dressed and you can come down and have some nice afternoon tea."- with those ladies rabbiting on, she'd rather hear the rabbiting on of her two year old at this point.

* * *

"Oh Phryne. Isn't she delightful!"

Phryne nodded and smiled, readjusting Evie's dress as it slid up her knees. "She can be at times."

Evie suddenly laid back against her chest, one hand seeming to clutch rather firmly, on a piece of Mr Butler's chocolate cake. It began to crumble between her fingers, bits of cake lining her dress. She did her best to ignore it.

"I just think if we did the luncheon we'd raise more money than the soiree and-"

"Rose. No one is going to attend a luncheon in the middle of summer. It's just not going to be appropriate."

Phryne breathed out deeply as Mrs Heidleberg uttered that comment. She had a point, it was ridiculously hot however she was so rude most of the time, her words seemed laced in bitterness. 

The phone rang, piercing Phryne's slow acceptance of a boring afternoon.

Mr Butler appeared on cue as always, clearing his throat and calling her to the phone.

She winked at him as he took Evie from her arms, the man seemingly unoffended by her child's chocolate covered fingers.

She listened, her mood changing as Jack explained to her that another woman had been found. Alive this time.

* * *

  
She peered around the door frame doing her best to see past the rather angry and haughty matron.

"If you step back please."

Phryne nodded in understanding, rather annoyed and pointed to the doorway. "I work with Inspector Jack Robinson and-"

"No. Only police beyond this point."

She made a move to walk through the door anyway and was met with the Matron's hand.

"Miss, please."

"Inspector Jack Robinson. Please let her in."

Phryne smiled as the Matron stepped aside. "Thank you."

She locked eyes with Jack and reached for his arm, encircling it with hers. "She wouldn't let me past."

Jack leaned into her, his hot breath at her ear. "She's almost as scary as Aunt Prudence when you told her we were courting."

Phryne chuckled before dropping her voice to a whisper. "If that was courting then-"

"Behave yourself, Miss Fisher."

She nodded in understanding, her eyes betraying her and followed him into the hospital room. She inhaled sharply as she saw the sight before her.

A woman, no older than twenty covered in marks, cuts and gashes. One cheek was sliced to the bone, one eye black and blue, her lips were barely visible such was the swelling and her arm was broken, the limb wrapped firmly in a cast.

"You alright?"

Phryne nodded, offering him a flat smile. "Of course."

She was clearly not fine. He had heard the gasp, felt her body tighten, could feel her hand gripping his tightly. 

He cleared his throat, switching himself from husband to partner and Detective Inspector.

"Rosie Pickering. Twenty two. She was found in a back alley in Collingwood barely conscious. She has one broken arm and severe wounds to her face, stomach and leg. Only items found on her was her purse and medication. She's an asthmatic."

Phryne nodded in understanding doing her best to listen while Rosie Pickering breathed heavily, moaning between breaths.

"Mac is on her way to fill us in further. Apparently there are further injuries."

Phryne let her eyes fall on the face of the woman before her. She was small and petite, her hair the colour of Jane's, deep red. She closed her eyes, forcing that association from her head and focused on the case at hand. 

"She's got the same cuts to her chin."

Jack nodded in understanding. "Perhaps a branding of some kind."

"Perhaps we're dealing with a serial killer, Jack"

He breathed in sharply, surprised she hadn't come to that conclusion already but happy for her to take the lead.


End file.
